Significant Career Lesson From an Operations Excellence Manager at Sharp HealthCare
Myron's career journey highlights a crucial lesson: continuous learning and growth are essential, emphasizing that achieving a goal, even a significant one, is merely "inhaling" before the next "exhale" and pursuit of new challenges. This "breathing" analogy underscores the need for constant adaptation and humility, as even significant career achievements necessitate a return to "square one" to build new skills and credibility.
Project Management, Career Development, Resilience, Overcoming Challenges, Achieving Goals
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Myron Soyangco
Manager of Operations Excellence
Sharp HealthCare
UCLA
UCLA Anderson SOM - MBA
Chemistry
Healthcare, Medical & Wellness
Operations and Project Management
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, LGBTQ, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. Continuous learning is crucial for career growth. Myron emphasizes that achieving a goal doesn't mean the learning stops; rather, it's an opportunity to start again, building new skills and seeking new challenges.
2. Humility and adaptability are vital, especially in project management. Myron highlights the need to embrace the 'beginner's mindset' with each new project, forming new teams and rebuilding credibility.
3. Career progression is a continuous cycle of growth and development, not a linear path with a single endpoint. Myron's analogy of 'breathing' emphasizes the ongoing nature of learning and adaptation throughout a career, even after achieving significant milestones.
Transcript
What is one lesson that you've learned that has proven significant throughout your career?
I have an analogy for this. Remember that when you're working, you're breathing. A lot of people, myself included, when I was in that entry-level job on the bench doing my chemistry day in and day out, thought I was inhaling. I'd say, "Give me all the experience, give me all of this opportunity to find in my job."
Then, when I got my first role in the hospital as a senior specialist in performance improvement, I thought, "Oh, I made it." I was in a big company, in a very good role. I came in at 25, which was sort of unheard of for someone my age. I thought, "I've made it!"
It was one week later that I realized I was overwhelmed. I had to learn things again and look for opportunities again. The analogy here is breathing.
The lesson I learned is that just because you're building up to a goal and you achieve it, and you have this big relief, that doesn't mean you're done. It means you have to breathe again, inhale again, and learn until you reach your next goal. Then you breathe out.
This is particularly true in my role as a project manager. When I close out a project and report to my executives or even to the state or the county, saying, "Look at this awesome work we did," that cloud nine feeling lasts for about one workday. You give that presentation, everybody applauds you, and you're the best.
Then, guess what? You're starting a new project where you know nothing, and you're back to square one. You need that humility to be okay. I'm no longer the expert again. I'm no longer smooth-talking. I have to form a team, build credibility again, and start this over.
This happens on a small scale, per project, but also on a large scale as you look for more jobs and career shifts. Just know that there is no one ending. Maybe at retirement, I'll let you know when I get there. Otherwise, you want to be continuously growing. If you stop breathing, then you're dead.